You Wished You Lived Here – The New York Times

This article is part of our International Homes special section, which takes a look at homes and golf, from planned communities and sustainability to course designers and where they live.

When you picture residences on a golf course, what comes to mind? Stucco clad ranch houses peeking into a fairway?

Sure, this perception has some basis in reality. There is inherently something old-fashioned about living along a constructed environment meant for whacking balls for five hours at a time. But golf homes, like golf itself which is expanding into international markets, embracing sophisticated equipment, and working hard to become younger, trendier, more diverse, and more environmentally friendly are evolving.

The best homes are not predictable models next to a sand trap, protected by a net or shatterproof windows. They are breathtaking, unapologetically modern structures, inspired by their landscape and their owners, and shaped to adapt to a unique setting.

Some are downright revolutionary: built into the earth to minimize bulk, transformable to adapt to changing needs, or hovering above, with long projections to provide clear views.

Many homes on golf courses are not this modern or beautiful, but just as golfers rarely wear argyle sweaters and plaid pants anymore, golf houses are entering the 21st century. Here are a few that push architectural and, sometimes, financial limits.

Casa Golf, from the architect Luciano Kruk, floats over the dunes of this coastal community about four hours south of Buenos Aires, named for its mix of long, soft beaches and thick pine forests.

The home takes the form of three stacked and interlocked concrete blocks dividing entry/storage, living, and sleeping. Large windows, protected by long eaves, frame clear views to the links course and the ocean. Thin, board-formed concrete surfaces (which minimize material waste and keep the home well insulated) feel raw, almost prehistoric, dialoguing with the coarse, windswept landscape.

The lowest block is partially buried, providing extra privacy, and minimizing visual impact, while the story above is open on all sides. A striking projection from the top story, which Mr. Kruk compares to a cannon, provides shade and privacy, and frames dramatic views of the distant sea.

Balconies formed by the homes staggered form become outdoor rooms for enjoying the breezes, the sun, and views in all directions.

This residence, jutting from a hilly forest preserve about 40 feet above the lush Quinta Da Baronesa course, near So Paulo, has the complexity of a small village. Designed by Studio Arthur Casas as a five-person familys weekend escape, its intersecting, Tetris-like volumes, shaped by the site (the architect must be natures ally, said Mr. Casas) are clad in diverse, earth-toned materials like granite, timber, and wood-colored aluminum.

From its core, large cantilevers span, opening endless uses. The L-shaped lower volume, driven into the site, contains a service and spa area. The cross-shaped middle space extends over the floor below, its open plan living room and wooden deck (embedded with a thin pool) projecting in different directions, providing sweeping views and cool breezes.

The bar-shaped upper volume, containing the master suite and childrens rooms, shoots over the home, with long balconies that give you the impression of flying over the region. This level also offers access to the green roof, which cools the home, minimizes its bulk, and connects to the homes lush garden. (It is also a good place to hit golf balls.)

One of the worlds most striking golf course homes is the Wall House, designed by the Lisbon-based Guedes Cruz Architects in the beautiful coastal town of Cascais. The buildings name comes not from a solid barrier, but from a massive wall of glass that provides clear views of the undulating landscape of dunes, pine trees, and Oitavos Dunes Golf Course, considered the best in Portugal.

Several segments of this window can slide open (thanks to a complex system of weights) making the living spaces feel like they are outdoors. The concrete homes focus is a ground floor patio, from which all spaces flow easily, thanks to an open plan, generous apertures and balconies, and connections between levels.

The propertys most remarkable element is its sculptural pair of stacked pools. A bar shaped swimming area edges the patio, stretching toward the golf course, while above a perpendicular pool projects, like a bridge, from the home, an acrylic bottom allowing swimmers to see each other on multiple levels, and helping light reach the patio.

This top element has another function: it gives the patio privacy, light shade, and protection from strong breezes.

Located in the center of a lake island in Ontarios serene Muskoka region, these cabins by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple are modern adaptations of the areas historic cottages and boathouses.

Edging the Bigwin Island Golf Club, a championship course, the cabins, floating on low posts, were conceived in lieu of a large hotel there are three, and eventually 40 will dot the landscape, forming a villagelike community.

All are topped with peaked, cedar shingle-clad roofs and flanked with immense floor to ceiling windows, soaking up broad views across the islands flowing bent grasses (often grazed by deer), its maple, pine and ash trees, and down to the glittering lake beyond.

Inside, each home has the same variety of spaces, but in different configurations: screened in porch, deck, living room and sleeping area. The airy living rooms, lined in rustic ship-lapped timber, have sculptural ceilings that rise to a peak, illuminated naturally from above by a light-bouncing periscope window.

We try to find poetry in the place, said Brian MacKay-Lyons, a firm principal.

Perhaps more than any other on this list, this two-level home, on the edge of Club de Golf Escorpin near Valencia, Spain, was shaped by its site. Its architects, Fran Silvestre Architects, created a rounded form to help make its tight site feel less confining, to guide the eye into the deep neighboring landscape, and to echo the curving shapes of the course its fairways, greens, bunkers.

The homes concrete shell, covered in solid white surface stone, creates a cantilevered mezzanine for sleeping, allowing residents to look down on the living spaces below, or out to the landscape through carved, box-shaped openings.

The structures concrete frame helps shape a ground floor that opens completely, via sliding glass walls, to the curving pool (an intentional reflection of the house) and the greenery beyond.

You can see straight through the house to the far end of the golf course, Mr. Silvestre said. Informal barriers, like kitchen counters and a partial marble wall, help shelter occupants on the nonpool side of the home should they want a more intimate getaway. Trees and gardens provide more privacy and protection from the course, as does a metallic fence, whose green color and subtle openings make it hard to tell it is there.

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You Wished You Lived Here - The New York Times